Redundancy is difficult for bosses, too

Sylvia Pennington

Being made redundant can be a distressing experience for many workers – particularly if the news comes unexpectedly. But what of the bosses charged with overseeing the cull and managing the aftermath?

How stressful is it to sit on the knowledge that cuts are in the offing; break the bad news to those deemed surplus to requirements; get more work out of the fewer who remain, and keep the team’s spirits up so productivity doesn’t slump?

I felt guilty that I had to dehumanise the process.

Very, says Joanne Roberts, who went through the process several years ago in a former role as general manager of a national retail chain.

After committing to expansion on multiple fronts, including internationally, the business was buffeted by the GFC and found itself battling to reverse a dramatic decline in foot traffic at a location which had previously been one of its busiest.

Staying the course

Cutting the headcount by 10 per cent emerged as the best strategy for getting the business back on firmer footing and ensuring its survival long term.

While the economic rationale made sense, remaining detached throughout the process was a major challenge.

“I look back and it was an awful time,” Roberts says. “It’s hard to make decisions on who to let go because it’s not a performance based decision. I felt guilty weighing up who had to go.”

While she continued to remind herself to focus on the business benefits rather than the emotional aspects, doing so was not easy.

“I felt guilty that I had to dehumanise the process,” Roberts says. “I had to make decisions quite quickly – I had an obligation and a responsibility to my bosses – but you can’t entirely switch off the personal.”

Particularly not when staff respond with tears to the news that they’ll be finishing up on Friday.

“You never know what the right thing is to say and part of you wants to say, ‘just forget about it’,” Roberts says. ‘”You can’t say, ‘I know how you feel’. You need to reaffirm that it’s not personal and that it was nothing to do with their performance.”

After the cull, Roberts says she worked without taking a day off for three months, to ensure organisational changes were bedded down and remaining employees felt confident the storm had passed.

“You need to show staff that you’re invested in the business and in their job security,” she says. “I didn’t want them to feel we were in a terrible place and that they had to look elsewhere. I had to be very positive and show staff that we were all in it together and [that we] were fine.”

This time it's personal

Careers consultant Dr Edwin Trevor-Roberts has advised dozens of companies on redundancy programs and believes the toll that having to slash their team takes on managers can be considerable.

“It’s the worst part of being a boss,” he says. “It’s very personal, especially when people have worked for you for a long time. You may have hired them, you know their personal circumstances… As a manager, there’s nothing you can do.”

Having to sit on the news for weeks before it’s shared with staff is stressful, so it’s important to set some personal boundaries when you do start to give people their marching orders.

“You can’t be their shoulder to cry on – things go haywire when managers try or want to play this part,” Trevor-Roberts says. “You have to be a little bit clinical. Give the announcement to staff – make very sure they understand what’s going on in the process and what support is available.”

Assuaging the concerns and boosting the spirits of those who survive the cull can be a challenge for months afterwards.

A morale lapse is inevitable but it’s the boss’s job to rebuild engagement with staff as quickly as possible, Trevor-Roberts says.

Expected to step up

“If you’re deserving of a manager’s wage then you have to be able to step up and have conversations that are uncomfortable,” she says.

Veteran business consultant Mark Everson agrees. He’s held general manager positions in several industries and had to make people redundant on more than one occasion.

While no one enjoys seeing staff off, approaching the matter in a business-like fashion and staying focused on the issue at hand – usually pulling a company back into profitability – minimises the personal stress involved, he believes.

“You’ve got to be able to manage those feelings…if you do it with honour and integrity it’s nowhere near as stressful,” Everson says. “You need to understand the reality and address it in a calm and compassionate manner.”

Have you had to make staff redundant? Was it the hardest thing you’ve had to do, or all in a day’s work?

34 comments so far

Yes my heart bleeds for the poor overpaid manager who now has less workers from whom to steal credit from...

Commenter

Alex

Location

Sydney

Date and time

July 28, 2014, 9:10AM

@ Alex. The reality is that middle managers who have to act as the executioner in such cases are often then the people who then get axed at the end of the process - so they experience all sides of the anguish. I hope I never get retrenched by a person with as little empathy as you.

Commenter

Anthony

Location

Umina Beach

Date and time

July 28, 2014, 12:08PM

Alex, surely you mean "fewer workers".

Commenter

Public Joe

Date and time

July 28, 2014, 12:33PM

My manager wasn't overpaid and it sure wasn't his decision when I was laid off. He wouldn't have done any such thing. If anyone should have been got rid of, it was the incompetent managing director who's running the business into the ground.

Commenter

umemployed

Date and time

July 28, 2014, 1:30PM

Only someone with little-no knowledge of how the corporate ladder actually works would do this as the overpaid people at the top only have to fire like one person and that is after the guy he is firing does all the dirty work for him.

Commenter

trigga

Date and time

July 28, 2014, 1:47PM

My niece worked in HR for a large car manufacturer. She left before having to make people redundant because she knew that after going through the whole stressful and emotional process, the writing would be on the wall for her.

Commenter

Catherine

Date and time

July 28, 2014, 9:12AM

"Stay the course" that's right this author has the right sound bites. Soon as she will be able to use them in another Liberal invasion/failure.

Commenter

Jake

Date and time

July 28, 2014, 1:58PM

Yes......I've done this, and Yes......I've had it done to me. As a manager I've had to tell sme team members that they have been made redundant......and its absolutely horrible. That said, no matter what the organization says should be done, if you are a good manager and you know your staff well, then generally there are some who you know want to go, and some who absolutely dread it. The skill and "art" is to find a way where the redundancy targets are achieved, yet no individual who desperately needs to stay (say because of their financial / family commitments) is made redundant. If you get it right, then hopefully everyone walks away relatively happy, and team morale isn't destroyed. The second key factor is that there should be a minimum of surprise. Staff need to have an awareness some time out this is going to happen, and managers need to reassure staff up-front that it will all be done in a way that minimizes pain, and is FAIR However, its a bad time for a manager, as you know that "you're next". I've also been made redundant.....and seen it done badly. Got "roasted" by a senior manager who had no clue - justifying why I'd been chosen. My manager - who knew what was being said was crap - looked at the floor the whole time and said nothing, as he was scared he'd be next if he rocked the boat. The real reason I got chosen is that I'd only been there 2 years V peers who'd been there 15 years.....so I was much cheaper to dispose of. Yet another time it was fair, and in my own redundancy interview I had to console the HR manager who let me go, as she was devastated. Funny world!

Commenter

Anthony

Location

Umina Beach

Date and time

July 28, 2014, 9:17AM

My other half had to do this when a factory was being wound up. It was a two stage process : pretty much half or more of the workforce in the first round, and then everyone else in the second, including my husband.The GM had the task of taking all the people staying into one space, while mine had the job of taking the Won't Be Here Next Week bunch to another space to break the news to them. Within a few weeks GM had a job with a major manufacturer and flown the coop, and the middle management crew had to manage those that remained through the finalisation process before they all left. Last one out turned off the lights.I've watched it happen a couple of times -not as dramatically as this instance. It never ceases to amaze me that upper management do the good times bit and leave it for someone else to be the bearer of bad news.

Commenter

exec's wife

Date and time

July 28, 2014, 11:19PM

I have made people redundant and the first thing I would say is you must do it face-to-face. Text, email, Skype, phone call - all gutless. If you are telling someone they are losing their job at least have the respect to meet with them. Also make sure that you tell all of the people that are going as close to each other as possible, nothing worse than days and days of being left hanging.